


Clones of Gods

by TheGlitchMaster



Series: Of Gods and Clones [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Gore, Language, Legendaries, Mental Health Issues, Other, Trans Characters, Trauma, Violence, Worldbuilding, but also like some mild physical health issues, cloning, discussions on gender for poor legendaries that don't know shit about gender, kinda neglectful parents, like I mashed up canon from the anime and games and added my own nonsense, might have accidentally made a jurassic park au, non binary characters, not sure if this counts as a "realistic au" but it might, who're also assholes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGlitchMaster/pseuds/TheGlitchMaster
Summary: Teen trainer Cobalt, who's spent most of his life tethered to Cinnabar Island, gets suddenly dragged into some illegal work for a sketchy gang leader with an army of mad scientists because his parents made some dumbass choices in the past. Now he's torn between following cruel instructions or escaping with his new clone companion, but abandoning his family in the process.
Series: Of Gods and Clones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980970
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bunch of self indulgent nonsense I'm writing for myself because I'm hyper fixating again. Tags will change as I go along and get firmer ideas on where to take this. Also ao3 won't let me add pictures to my chapters so check my art blog on Tumblr (Glitchesart) if you want to see my bad chapter art

Cobalt perched atop Quicksilver’s back, the young aerodactyl gliding easily over the warm air currents raising up from the cerulean ocean beneath them. Cobalt scanned the horizon. He had spotted the mysterious pokemon again that morning. He had never seen them up close, but he had seen the small blue and pink figures fly nimbly over the sea multiple times throughout the last few years. Each time the trainer glimpsed the unknown creatures he had tried to investigate them, and each time he lost their tiny pink and blue forms in the vast blue void of the ocean. 

A large gust of wind blasted by on his right and knocked Quicksilver off balance. Both aerodactyl and trainer shrieked while their world spun around them and they momentarily plummeted towards the ocean waves. Quicksilver regained her balance just in time to avoid becoming submerged, but not fast enough to prevent water from splashing into her trainer’s face on downstroke. The source of the wind gust zoomed past again, but with a much smaller blast of air ribboning between them. Dual small blue and pink forms spun circles around Cobalt and his aerodactyl, like planets orbiting a star. The blue creature paused midair and giggled, putting its small forearms against its feline muzzle, before zipping off again, the pink one did a flip and followed close behind. 

It took a moment for Cobalt to regain his senses. Upon recognizing the familiar pokemon he patted Quicksilver’s rough, scaly hide and yelled, “After them!” The aerodactyl shrieked in challenge and barreled through the sky towards the small speeding creatures. Cobalt grabbed the Great Ball on his belt and in a flash of light released Mizuko. The large dragonair looked around, momentarily confused, before spotting the two small pokemon and belined for them, her long body flowing through the sky like living water. He knew Quicksilver was faster but Mizuko had more agility, and he needed two fliers in case the two mystery pokemon split up. The small blue and pink bodies twirled and spun as if this were nothing but a game. Cobalt pulled out an Ultra Ball from a bag on his belt and pressed the button to maximize it. He was coming home with one of these creatures if it was the last thing he did.

Though the winds were starting to pick up, they remained in Cobalt’s favor. The skies were quickly blanketed in ever greying clouds. The air was becoming ever more turbulent and rain began to pour down. If he was going to capture one of those creatures he needed to move fast before the rain waterlogged Quicksilver’s wings. Quicksilver swiveled her head around and watched the increasing rainfall with a nervous expression. Sensing the growing urgency, the aerodactyl increased her speed. They were almost close rough for Quicksilver to grab one in her jaws. The waves beneath them grew choppy and rough, water splashing up against the aerodactyl’s scales. The pink creature dived beneath the waves, then twirled back into the sky, splashing water droplets into the aerodactyl's face. Quicksilver shook her face, grumbled angrily, and sped up slightly. Just as they were about to catch up to the pokemon the air around them crackled with psychic energy.  _ Oh no. Not now _ , Cobalt thought with rising frustration, he was  _ so close  _ to his goal. With a blink of psychic power a kadabra teleported directly in front of Quicksilver with a dark expression that could stop a bullet, forcing the giant aerodactyl to stop and hover. The speed of the stop almost sent Cobalt flying off his aerodactyl. Heavy annoyance radiated from the kadabra, and was increasing with the continued rain drenching her fur. 

“ _ Cobalt _ ,” the psychic spat telepathically.

“Carmella,” Cobalt spat back verbally, lifting his Go-goggles to properly glare at her, angry with her poor timing.When was he ever going to get a chance like this again? He looked over her shoulder and spotted the two pokemon happily doing flips and somersaults through the rain, seemingly unaware of the kadabra’s presence. 

“ _ What are you doing here?! _ ” Carmella snarled with enough psychic power in her voice to stab some pain into Cobalt’s brain. Cobalt pointed at the two creatures behind them, trying to distract her from the headache she was trying to give him, but as soon as he did they disappeared in a flash of light and two wingulls flew in their place. Carmella had turned around just a second too late.

“ _ Wingulls? You’re here in the rain for _ Wingulls _?! _ ” the kadabra rubbed her forehead in frustration. All of the negative psychic energy flowing from her was starting to turn Cobalt’s headache into a migraine. The lab coat the kadabra wore fluttered against the wind with her anger. He glanced back at the departing wingulls, and memorized the direction they flew. They seemed to fly directly towards the old abandoned mansion on the outskirts of the island. The kadabra snapped her three fingers and dragged his attention back to the situation at hand.

“No! I saw them again! The ones I told you about! They were just there!” Cobalt yelled over the sound of the rain and placed the Ultra Ball back in his Pokeball Bag. Why did she have to be here _ now _ ? If his parents needed anything at the lab surely they could wait a few minutes for him to make the scientific discovery of the century. 

“ _ There’s no time for this, your parents can scold you later. We have to go. Now _ .” She said, using her telekinesis to drag the dragonair back towards them. Carmella levitated Mizuko’s Great Ball over to her and tapped it against the dragon’s side, who immediately dissolved into raw computer data and disappeared into the Great Ball. She floated closer to place the ball into Cobalt’s hand. She rested a three fingered hand on his and set her other hand on the aerodactyl.

“Gonna fill me in before you blink us to who knows where?” Cobalt asked, preparing himself for the discomfort of teleportation. Carmella took back her hand to nervously tug at her short, braided whiskers and looked away. 

“ _ The tyrantrum escaped its exhibit, and destroyed part of the laboratory. It killed three scientists in its escape... And was last seen making its way towards Cinnabar's kadabra village... We tried to tranquilize it but we only had minimal sedatives on hand. _ ”

Cobalt was taken aback. He had expected something small or trivial, like he had forgotten to clean the archen exhibit again, or maybe one of his team had dug holes in the yard again. He grimly nodded and Cambella placed her hands back and teleported them back to the island. He felt his feet set down on the soft grass outside of the city and felt the thud of Quicksilver ungracefully hitting the ground with an indignant grunt next to him. Cobalt swayed momentarily in place, waiting for his vision to return, for feeling to come back into his legs, and for the dizziness to subside. For him, teleporting always felt like standing up too quickly, but for others teleporting could cause severe nausea or migraines. Humans were not built for teleporting, and generally felt the whole experience was unpleasant or unnatural. However, humans with stronger psychic abilities, such as Cobalt, or the famous Gym Leader Sabrina, tended to cope better.

The trees swayed with the strong winds and rain as lightning cracked overhead. Large footprints could be seen deeply imprinted into the mud as well as several fallen trees, though whether the trees fell because of the wind or a rampaging fossil remained unseen.

“ _ This is as close as I can get you with Quicksilver. You might want the others out to help take her down. _ ” She waited a moment for the trainer to release all of his team. In a flash of light an arcanine, leafeon, and dragonair joined them in the rain. The arcanine looked around warily at the storm raging around them, and even the leafeon seemed unhappy about the situation. “ _ Good. Now follow me. Quickly. _ ” The group of pokemon and trainer sprinted deeper into the forest. The trees grew taller and thicker the farther they traveled, requiring Quicksilver to keep her wings as close to her body as possible while she flew. The closer they came the louder the screams of psychics echoed through the forest as their cries for help echoed in Cobalt’s brain. 

Before long the group broke through the clearing and into the village itself. Dozens upon dozens of buildings and houses of varying sizes and elevations, constructed of vertical logs with thatch and leaf roofs, and thin wood bridges connecting them all, came into view. When he was younger Carmella had told him that humans had made themselves a city in the likeness of kadabra villages in Hoenn, called Fortree. Broken branches littered the ground, the ropes of many bridges shredded beyond simple repair, several of the houses lowest to the ground had been caved in and demolished. Despite the heavy rain, multiple blood splatters had clung to several walls and blended with the mud. Several limp bodies lay half buried in the mud; some with closed eyes, others with eyes permanently frozen wide in terror. Kadabras everywhere were fleeing, both on foot and through flying; Cobalt saw that several individuals had abras clinging around their necks, or unhatched eggs held against their chests. Up in the sky a black helicopter could be seen loudly hovering above the chaos, a large red R was painted on the side of the vehicle. All of the physical and psychic audio was giving him a massive migraine, he had to cover his ears and focus on blocking out the other psychics just to think.

Carmella had searched all of the minds around them until she found the mind of the creature tormenting the village. She grabbed the trainer’s jacket and pointed down the path of destruction.

“ _ This way. _ ” 

Cobalt nodded and followed her through the nightmare around them, his team close behind. As they ran he raked his brain, trying to remember a tyrantrums’ typing and all the various typing advantages. Tyrantrum was a dual rock and dragon type. Dragon was weak to dragon, he could use Mizuko there, dragons are weak to ice, and Mizuko knew icebeam, but she would be weak to any dragon attacks the tyrantrum used; and the arcanine had the typing disadvantage. His mind was spiraling as he tried to think of the different ways to defeat it. His goal was that he wouldn’t have to fight at all, and use his limited psychic powers to convince the creature to calm down and return home in a pokeball. It would have been easier to slay the beast, but Cobalt knew the amount of trouble that would throw him into and the sheer amount of money that resided in the theropod, his parents would never forgive him; although the League might require the euthanization of this individual anyways.

A large theropod beast came into view. The ring of feathers around its neck and under its chin were tainted with blood and mud. In the jaws of the beast rested a limp body, its once golden fur forever stained crimson. The monster rumbled a threat deep in its chest and dropped its prey, the body sinking in mud. Cobalt’s increasing anxiety spiked as the tyrantrum kneaded the ground with its large claws, like a tauros ready to charge. His team tensed by his side, ready to die to protect their trainer. 

The trainer willed himself to calm down, and extend his mind into the monsters. Immense anger and pain enveloped him once their minds connected. He forced calming emotions into the mind of the tyrantrum to force it to relax. He searched the memories of the creature to see what triggered the event. Apparently the electric fence had a power outage which allowed the dinosaur to escape. Instead of being coaxed back into the enclosure the lab’s scientists and bodyguards had attempted to tranq it, and when that didn’t work, began repeatedly tazing it. One of the bodyguards had released a charizard and attacked the theropod, who easily disposed of the threat, though not unscathed. In its rage it destroyed the wall separating the lab yard from the rest of the island, and rampaged through the village to blow off steam.

Cobalt’s body shook, both from the freezing rain and the new bloody memories scalded into his brain. He continued to send calming thoughts the tyrantrum’s way as he slowly approached it. It grumbled threateningly once, the sound reverberating through his bones, but the sound quickly stopped. The theropod lowered its head, the anger subsiding. Cobalt rested a hand on its scarlet snout, knowing full well that at any moment he could lose the hand if the beast decided it wasn’t done raging, but hid that thought from the mind to mind connection; he didn’t want to give it any ideas.

He slipped a pokeball out of the bag on his belt, but before he could tap it against the dinosaur a blinding flash of lightning hit the ground a short ways away from them, a small ball of flame exploded into life but was quickly extinguished by the storm. The flash startled the tyrantrum and it snapped at the trainer, who moved his hand just in time. The creature's rage skyrocketed so fast it immediately severed the psychic connection, giving the trainer some mental whiplash. It bellowed a roar, the sheer volume of it dropped Cobalt to his knees. It lunged fangs first at him, but before it could add another life to its kill count, an aerodactyl, almost as tall as itself, slammed into it with a furious squawk. Claws slashed, jaws snapped, and blood flew as the two fought. Mizuko rushed into the fray and wrapped her body tightly around its neck, while the arcanine shot a blast of fire at it, and the leafeon summoned leaves from the trees and blades of grass from around it to turn into a razor leaf attack. Carmella used her telekinesis to hold the beast as still as possible, her battling days may have been over but she could still help.

Cobalt shook his head and gathered his bearings, a high pitched buzz still rang in his ears. 

“Orchid, giga drain! Ignus, dig! Mizuko, dragon pulse! Quicksilver, iron tail!” He shouted at his team. The leafeon keended in acknowledgement and stamped the ground, and glowing green spheres appeared to be sucked out of the tyrantrum and absorbed by the leafeon, the tyrantrum seeming to lose strength. The arcanine backed off and used its large paws to tunnel through the earth, quickly disappearing underground. The dragonair opened her jaws and blasted the theropod with a purple laser beam. The aerodactyl slashed the opponent repeatedly with her spade tail. The arcanine lunged up from the earth directly under the beast, tearing into its soft stomach and sending mud flying. The tyrantrum was down in a matter of seconds, Cobalt quickly grabbed the Ultra Ball he had been saving and threw it against the pokemon. It disappeared into a flash of light as the ball hit the muddied grass with a soft thud, shook a few times, and settled; the center button flashed green with a small click sound. 

Cobalt sighed and collapsed against his arcanine’s side, leaning against the warmth of the dog's fur. Ignus licked the back of his head and he knew his hair was going to just be messed up for the rest of the day. His team all came back to him, Orchid jumped onto his back and wrapped herself around his neck, the leafeon nuzzled against his face. Mizuko coiled protectively around his midsection and Quicksilver limped upto his side. He looked his team over, all had some minor bruising and scrapes, but only Quicksilver had a serious injury. Her right leg had been snapped in the jaws of the tyrantrum. He scratched under her chin and returned her to her pokeball. He returned all of them except for Orchid and Ignus, one who remained perched on his shoulders, the other by his side. Cobalt had busied himself by scratching behind her ears. Carmella floated up to him with Ultra Ball in hand.

“ _ You might want this. We should stop by the Center on the way home, _ ” He nodded and took the ball, before climbing onto the giant arcanine’s back.

Before Ignus could pad off Cobalt felt a slight tug in the back of his mind, and stopped his dog from running off. He looked around, unsure where the psychic signal was originating. The signal was weak, but laced with fear and pain. He slid off Ignus’ back and looked around, Carmella seemed to sense it as well. The two psychics followed the signal and came across the body that the tyrantrum dropped earlier. The body was coiled tightly in a fetal position, arms around its midsection with its tail coiled up near its chest. Unnoticed during the chaos of the situation, the body was still moving; its chest heaved with strained breaths.

“ _ Help...please… _ ” the feminine voice quietly reached their brains.

Cobalt immediately ran over and lifted the fallen kadabra’s head off the ground, her short whiskers hung limply from her face. She wore a lightweight blue robe, a torn ribbon once kept the robe tied around her waist. Her midsection was pooling blood, organs could be seen poking through the flesh. Carmella audibly gasped, and put her hands up to her snout, Cobalt went cold and wanted to hurl right then and there. The kadabra shakily reached up and grabbed Cobalt’s sleeve.

“I-it’s okay, it’ll be okay. I can capture you and have you h-healed at the center, then I’ll release you,” Cobalt quickly grabbed an empty pokeball from his bag, it wasn’t exactly the most  _ legal _ thing to do, but he didn’t have any potions with him, and the only thing that could heal a wound like that would be a Full Restore.

“ _ N-no...I need..I need you to take..take this.. _ ” With seemingly great effort she uncoiled her tail, nestled in the safety of the thick fur, lay a small speckled egg. “ _ Take them! Pl-please! _ ” The kadabra was almost hysterical, tears freely flowing down her cheeks, blending with rain and blood. A great shudder passed through her body, she gently picked up the egg and held it out to the trainer, who took it from her shaking hands. Once the precious cargo was no longer in her possession she let out a content sigh and closed her eyes, never to be reopened.

Cobalt looked down at the egg in his hands dumbfoundedly. It was maybe 6 inches tall, and maybe an inch or two thinner in diameter. Other than adorning a few blood splatters, it appeared to be perfectly intact, he could sense the tiny developing psychic presence inside. He felt numb, even Carmella was silent. He unzipped his jacket and used it to shelter the egg from the rain. Carmella put a hand on his shoulder, “ _ We should go, _ ”

“...We can’t just leave her here,” he didn’t even feel the cold of the rain anymore. Orchid whined from his shoulder and even ignus looked uncertain, pacing behind the others. Carmella nodded in understanding, and used her telekinesis to lay the body against a tree in the center of town, protected from most of the elements. Cobalt had removed his thin green jacket and wrapped it around her wound, she almost appeared to be in a peaceful slumber, “ _ The others will find her here. And give her a proper burial. _ ” As they walked away the helicopter hovering above flew off.

Cobalt had taken his team to the Pokemon Center. It was smaller than those in the human cities, but still contained the computer system necessary for data reconstruction. He looked around at the lobby, dozens of bodies were laying in cots, against the walls, and even against the front desk, nurses quickly running between patients. He returned his team to their pokeballs and handed them to the kadabra behind the counter, who then set them in the container hooked up to the computer. The screen lit up behind her and with a series of beeps, alerted them to his teams completed healing. He took his team back, stopped off at the local pokemart to purchase an incubator, and spent the night walking back to his home. Carmella had offered to teleport him back but he declined, needing some time to clear his head. She took the Ultra Ball containing the tyrantrum instead and flew off towards their house.

By the time he walked up the doorsteps to his home, rosy gold dawn stretched over the horizon. His clothes were soaked, his body shook but he stopped feeling the cold awhile ago. Before he could knock his mother answered the door, she glanced at the incubator in his arms with a disapproving expression.

“Our boss had observed your performance at the village yesterday and was impressed by how you handled it. He would like to speak with you,” his mother stated with a foreboding tone. She moved away from the door to let him in. Upon entering he immediately noticed the man sitting on the couch. Coalt stopped in his tracks. The man wore a red turtleneck underneath his jet black suit; on the suit was a red R. The man had an unnerving smirk on his face, and held his hand out for a shake. The trainer hesitated before shaking his hand, trying to pry into the mind in front of him. He was met with a mental barrier preventing him from seeing inside the head of the stranger; this was a man with experience working with psychics. He glanced around quickly and noticed Carmella watching warily through the doorway of the other room. He reluctantly shook his hand, the strong grip catching him off guard. 

“Pleasure to finally meet you, I am  Giovanni, and I have a proposition for you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Cobalt sat down in a chair opposite to the man on the couch, holding the incubator close to him. Alarm sirens screamed in his brain just seeing this stranger. 

“Your name is Cobalt, correct?” The man’s voice was rough and commanded authority. 

“Y-yes sir.” Cobalt replied, trying not to stare at the long claw-mark scars that stretched across the man’s face.

“And you nearly subdued a feral tyrantrum with nothing but your psychic powers, correct?” Giovanni leaned forward.

“Yes,”

“Most impressive.”

Cobalt glanced quickly towards his parents, who both held a neutral expression and stiff posture, which only heightened his anxiety.

“What is your job here at the labs?” the man named Giovanni inquired.

“Oh, uh, raising and training the fossil pokemon that we clone here.” he said, not sure how much information about his personal life or career he should give this man. His parents had said that this man was their boss, but he worked in the same laboratory as them and had never seen this stranger there before.

Giovanni clasped his hands together, “Wonderful. I think you would do nicely working with our newest asset.”

Great, now they were both being vague. 

“And that is?” he asked, tapping his fingers together nervously, trying to press the information out of the stranger.

Giovanni thought for a moment, his smirk only slightly wavering; he probably didn’t have experience with people questioning his commands.

“The scientists who work under me had discovered a rare fossil, never seen before, and managed to revive it. And we are looking for someone with experience raising wild beasts, and someone with experience with psychics,” he said the words slowly, his unnerving grin back in full force, and nodded in the direction of the kadabra in the other room. Even though Cobalt couldn’t see into this man’s mind, he knew he was calculating the amount of information to share.

“And of course, you will be generously paid if you accept this proposition,” He added, making Cobalt lose his train of thought. The trainer already had a well paying job. Most teens his age were either out on a journey, working fast food, or in a pokemart. Normally, someone working his position would have needed a degree and one hell of a resume; Since Cobalt’s parents worked at the lab, he had been able to work with the animals since he was a child.

The trainer folded his arms over the incubator, “Oh yeah? I doubt you could pay me more than I’m already making now, I’m basically a professor at this point,” He smarted off, ignoring the death glare his parents were giving him. The man in front of him chuckled, which then morphed into hearty laughter. He grabbed a checkbook and a pen from a pocket inside his suit.

“Oh you naive child, I can write any combination of numbers on this check. Name your price.”

  
  
  


The vehicle jumped and rocked as its tires traversed the worn, cracked road. Several hours had passed since the man had arrived at his house, long enough for Cobalt to change into clean clothes, take a quick nap, and to grab a few essentials and his bag. For the whole car ride Cobalt kept one hand protectively around the incubator and the other at the ready to release his team should the need arrive. He anxiously watched out the window, observing the rolling green hills in which they passed. The car pulled to a stop in the large driveway of the abandoned mansion.

“Cinnabar Mansion,” Cobalt quietly observed to himself, “Why are we here?” He briefly wondered if he was going to get murdered here, the place was long abandoned, no one would probably find his body. 

“Correct. We used the remnants of the old lab to revive the fossil.” Giovanni stated from the passenger seat, his bodyguard in the driver’s seat.

“Why not just take the fossil to the normal lab like normal trainers do?” He asked, having seen multiple trainers sell their discovered fossils for quick cash, and in the name of science of course. 

Giovanni made a small, annoyed humming noise to himself, “I don’t believe you’ve proven yourself worthy of that knowledge yet.” Cobalt was taken aback. The hell was that supposed to mean? 

They exited the vehicle. He looked up at the musty old building. It was huge, but crumbling at every corner. On the roof he noticed that two wingulls were perched. One was keeping a close eye on the group, and the other was stripping shingles off the roof. Most of the paint had been worn away and large holes could be seen on nearly every wall as well as the roof. This really was the perfect place to dispose of a body if he really was about to get murdered by this sketchy man in a suit. Cobalt was informed that the laboratory, or its remains, were located in the basement.  _ Fuck, their gonna kill me down there, no one will find me,  _ he thought as they navigated the maze inside the trashed and ransacked mansion towards the basement. 

A spec of purple caught Cobalt’s gaze as they walked. He paused to investigate it; a small puddle of ooze lay on the cracked floor. Without really thinking, he poked it. And it blinked at him. He yelled in surprise, stumbled backwards, and fell on his butt while trying not to drop the incubator, stirring up a cloud of dust in the process. Giovanni, farther down the hall, looked back at him.

“Ha! Don’t mind those, child. It is merely a ditto.” The man said nonchalantly. 

“What in Arceus’ name is a ditto?!” the trainer demanded, looking at the blob as it rose up and attempted to shape itself to look more human.

The man in the suit looked amused at his question, “They are shapeshifters, they pose no threat. Hell, catch one if you would like, they serve us no purpose.” As they continued the trainer noticed several more ditto and even a few koffing who had made residence in the abandoned place. The mansion was intact enough that most of the staircases down were usable, however the last floor had to be accessed by a rickety wooden ladder, probably older than Cobalt himself.

They kept walking until they made it to a set of surprisingly intact double doors. Giovanni typed in a series of numbers into a nearby keypad and flashed his disturbing grin yet again, “After you.” Cobalt hesitated at first, glancing nervously at the man and his bodyguard, then opened the doors.

Cobalt thought that if this place wasn’t a Murder Basement, the laboratory would look similar to the one he worked at; he expected pristine white walls and flooring, sharp disinfectant smells, incubation tanks, and infant fossil lizards in aquariums. However, what he did see was green tile floors, black and green walls, blue and white tables adorned with multiple computer monitors, and multiple scientists shuffling around. He could feel a faint psychic presence, but he couldn’t place the species. An ominous orange glow emanated from a doorway down the hall. The men led the trainer down the hall, weaving through all the papers that littered the floor. Cobalt swiveled his head around to glance into the various rooms they walked past, only catching small glimpses; a large whiteboard with multiple long equations scribbled in it in barely legible writing, several dusty bookshelves, an interrogation room, a medical table with a tray of medical equipment next to it, several test tubes, etc. Finally they made it to the very back room. Three large tanks filled with an orange liquid immediately caught the trainer’s attention and made his breath catch in his throat. On an elevated platform was one large tank, with two smaller tanks connected to the larger one by a set of thick tubes, multiple wires connecting to a pair of machines on each side. A small form, covered in small tubes, floated inside the front tank. 

“What is that?” the trainer asked, weaving past the tables and through the mass of scientists. He walked up the stairs of the platform and placed one of his hands against the glass tank to peer inside, the other tight against the incubator. The small body curled up in a near fetal position, its forelegs crossed over its chest, it had very feline characteristics, and a long tail wrapped around itself. Many tubes protruded from its body, half connecting to the ceiling of the tank, the rest connecting to the bottom. Cobalt couldn’t determine the color of the creature through the strange orange liquid, but he suspected its fur was either blue or purple.

Giovanni strode upto the tank and proudly leaned against the glass, “This, is your charge. It is a mewtwo, created from a fossil of mew. Subject D, to be precise. I expect it to be fully trained and obedient in six months from now. The scientists here will remove the asset from the tank so you can begin working immediately. If you train the asset properly I will permit you to work with a different asset. Until then, go amuse yourself. I have some important business to attend to and I do not have time to babysit you.”

Cobalt considered his words, the name ‘mew’ sounded vaguely familiar, then he got distracted by the rest of his instructions, “Wait what happened to subjects A through C? What other asset? And what happens if I don’t have it totally trained within that timespan?”

Giovanni turned and moved towards the doorway, giving the trainer a threatening glare the whole way, his smile gone, “You  _ will  _ have it battle-ready by then. Or  _ else. _ ” the man tossed a pokeball in the air threateningly and caught it before walking out.

Cobalt shuddered at the implications behind the man’s words, equally concerned by the absence to an answer to his other questions. This really was going to be a Murder Basement wasn’t it? Now that their boss had left, the scientists in the room went back to their business, the sounds of muttering filled the air. The trainer looked back towards the body in the tank and tried to connect minds with it. It’s tail swished slightly at the new psychic presence and its face scrunched slightly, but asides from that remained unresponsive. 

With the clone thoroughly tranquilized inside its tank Cobalt suddenly felt very out of place in the lab and decided to go busy himself. He meandered a bit, attempted to decipher the awful handwriting on the scribbled notes on the floor, tried to make sense of the various equations on the whiteboard (to no avail), got shoed out of the room with the DNA samples, and eventually settled on sitting down and skimming some books on one of the bookshelves. At one point he tried to go back into the room with the mewtwo to watch the process, but the doors were sealed tight. Most of the books were scientific, deeply explaining genetics and genomes, most of which Cobalt couldn’t make heads or tails of. He was skimming a paragraph about gene splicing when an old-looking journal sitting atop the neighboring table caught his attention. He picked it up and skimmed the introduction, setting the incubator down on the table next to him, it was a written document written about previous experiments done by the scientists under Giovanni. He noticed that it smelled quite old. He roughly skimmed the opening paragraphs before he stumbled upon a list of clones with photographs taped to the thinning pages. Maybe this would answer his many questions, he glanced at the first photograph. The date on the picture was about thirty years old. In the photo was an incubation tank, not too unlike the one Cobalt just saw, and inside was a small purple(?) form. He noticed the clone had blunt horns and weird shaped feet. He began reading.

_ Subject A _

_ After finding a mew fossil deep in the jungle we began the cloning process. In this laboratory on New Island, there were five clones, total, one of each Kanto starter, the mew clone we have since named mewtwo, and the individual that Dr. Fuji attempted to recreate, who will not be named in this record. We created two mew clones within the span of a few weeks from each other, in case one doesn’t survive; the first is incubating in this lab on New Island, the other will soon begin incubating in the ramshackle lab that was set up in the basement of Dr. Fuji’s mansion. All recordings of Subject B will be documented below. We did not recover enough pure mew DNA to create a pure clone, and Giovanni specifically requested we enhance the clones to make them more powerful than its predecessor, so we improvised with human DNA. Mine specifically was volunteered. We are uncertain on how the DNA will affect its development. _

_ The clones are developing nicely. The clones of the Kanto starters have developed patterns not frequently seen in the wild, possibly a genetic mutation. Subject A has taken on a fairly humanoid structure, possibly a side effect of the human DNA. It appears to have a thin coat of lavender fur, with darker fur on its tail. Early on in its development its body was incapable to support its brain and psychic powers so we had to alter its genetic structure that allowed it to grow a second spinal cord to support its power. The second clone has begun incubation in the other lab, we’ve sent a copy of our lab notes there to help with its development. _

_ A few months have passed, all clones have died save for Subject A, whose brain waves spiked to an extent that required us to administer a serum to even them back out and sedate the asset. It should be incapable of remembering the existence of the other clones. _

_ It was February 6th when Subject A first gained consciousness and destroyed it’s incubation tank. It awakened with great intelligence and full language comprehension. Before we could begin experimentation it destroyed the entire lab and killed most of us scientists, very few of us managed to survive to catalog the events.  _

_ Giovanni managed to convince it to go with him to Vermillion Gym, where he then convinced it to allow him to attach a suit of armor to it. The armor was designed to limit and refine its powers, the armor had cables that connected straight into the bloodstream. While Giovanni had it subdued we were able to measure and weigh Subject A at 6’ 7” and 269lbs. Giovanni used Subject A to defeat any and all trainers who came to challenge his gym. After a few weeks of defeating countless trainers Subject A destroyed the suit, leveled the entire gym and escaped, the gym then had to be rebuilt from the ground up. I do not wish to end up dead at the hands of this monster, like my unfortunate coworkers, I think I will retire. _

_ -Dr. Blaine _

Two more pictures were taped side by side. One was the small creature Cobalt saw in the previous image except full grown. The one next to it was the same clone but clad in a very intimidating suit of armor. He noticed the handwriting in the next section was different than that of the first, and that the pages they were written on were actually taped into the journal in an attempt to keep all data in one location.

_ Subject B _

_ Subject B was made with the same mew DNA samples used for Subject A and was created as a backup in case Subject A did not survive. Giovanni had shipped us a mega stone from an unknown source, and instructed us to fuse the stone into the clone, to maximize strength. Once the embryo had reached a certain point in its development we fused the small stone into its sternum and as the asset grew the bone grew around the mega stone, causing it to have an unusual skeleton in comparison to Subject A.  _

_ On March 10th Subject B gained consciousness and was removed from the tank. We heard about the destruction of the laboratory on New Island and were weary towards Subject B, however it was fairly docile. It allowed us to measure and weigh it at 6’4” and 246lbs. Thankfully for Subject B, Giovanni has yet to create a new suit of armor to train it in. _

_ Subject B was docile at first, but became increasingly aggressive as experimentation continued. After a few months of experimentation Subject B destroyed the laboratory mid-testing, heavily damaged the mansion, and escaped. Many of us were injured, myself included, but thankfully there were far less casualties here than on New Island. _

_ -Dr. _

The name written down was too smudged to be read. There was a photo of another clone, this one had warmer colors and softer features, standing next to a group of scientists. There was another change in handwriting, these pages not taped in but part of the original journal.

_ Subject C _

_ The laboratory underneath Cinnabar Mansion has been rebuilt, though it is a shadow of its former self. After the destruction of his home and the failure of his first “clone” Dr. Fuji left. Giovanni has been searching for Dr. Fuji since then, but he has yet to be found. Giovanni is furious about the loss of his first two assets and demands us to try again. We did not have enough mew DNA to create a new clone, so we mostly used the DNA of the previous subjects to create Subject C. _

_ We have two new scientists with us now, they have their own clone incubating in a nearby tank. The situation with them is similar to that of Dr. Fuji. As with Dr. Fuji’s asset, I am not allowed to write in detail about their subject.  _

_ Subject C has been incubating for approximately two months, its starting to grow fur and we’ve noticed an abnormality, most of the fur on its body is white and its tail is green. Both Subject A and Subject B had lavender and purple fur of slightly different shades, so this development might be a concern, although its vitals are stable, so perhaps not. _

_ Our new recruits asset has been removed from the tank early, they plan on raising it manually. While the both clones were incubating, they seemed to be communicating telepathically, similar to Mr. Fuji’s asset and Subject A. We administered a similar serum to the two to block their memories. _

_ About halfway through incubation Subject C woke up. It seemed to panic inside the tank and we had to tranquilize it before it could break through said tank. We kept it tranqed for the rest of its incubation period. _

_ Subject C gained consciousness on June 15th. We removed it from the tank before it awoke itself in an attempt to minimize harm. When it woke it had total language comprehension skills and motor skills. When we were communicating with it after its removal from the tank it read the minds and memories of all of the scientists in the building. With its newfound knowledge it turned on us and attacked us, causing heavy damage to the mansion and two casualties. We were able to tanq Subject C before it could escape. While it was unconscious we weighed it at 325lbs and measured it at 7’ 10”, Giovanni then instructed us to connect it to the new set of armor he had built.  _

_ The new armor was set up to pump medication through the subject’s veins, causing it to be too drugged up to fight back. The medication used for Subject C dulled its consciousness so it couldn’t think or reason, only leaving it conscious enough to follow orders. He used the drugged up specimen in several gym battles, and to illegally capture wild pokemon, same as he did with Subject A. Eventually we ran out of the medication we used on Subject C and the new shipment was running late so we had to keep Subject C sedated to prevent it from attacking us. While we were waiting for the new shipment Subject C somehow woke up and attacked us. No fatalities but it disfigured Giovanni’s face in its attempted escape. Giovanni managed to capture it in the Master Ball we had on hand. _

_ Months have passed, Giovanni has instructed us to try again with a new clone, he hasn’t released Subject C since it injured him, even though the shipment came through.  _

_ -Dr. Shiro _

Two photos were taped to the pages, one of a small green clone in the incubation tank, and the other was an adult clone in an even more intimidating suit of armor. The handwriting in the next section was the same as the previous.

_ Subject D _

_ We have started a new clone. We are officially out of mew DNA and have limited mewtwo DNA, Giovanni refused to release the previous specimen in order to collect DNA samples so we are improvising with the DNA of other psychics, it won’t be a normal mewtwo, but if its powerful, and controllable, it should suffice. _

_ We tried creating hybrid clones with espurr, ralts, espeon, and abra DNA respectively. All of which had other pokemon DNA to attempt to stabilize it, I’m only listing the main genomes. All of which have deceased save for the subject with the abra DNA, which has survived long enough for us to dub Subject D.  _

_ One of my coworkers suggested releasing the specimen from the tank when it was still young and to try raising it manually instead of waiting until it was mature. The boss reluctantly agreed, and began searching for a trainer to train it. _

_ The subject is developing well, although it looks vastly different from the previous subjects. We’re not sure why, but its fur is blue. It also has large ears instead of the horns previous mewtwos had, as well as more abra shaped limbs, markings, and fur. _

_ Subject D has evolved. We have never witnessed this with the other mewtwos. Its tail is now longer, with thicker fur, its snout is longer now, as are its ears. It is now considerably larger. This is a fascinating development. _

_ Giovanni has found a trainer to work with Subject D, the child of two of my coworkers. we will see how he does.  _

_ Through a miracle we have come across fresh mew DNA, should this subject and trainer fail us, we will be able to create an almost pure mew clone. Since the acquisition of the new DNA, the boss is growing less and less interested with the clone we already have and more excited about a more pure and powerful monster to control. _

Cobalt stared at the words and photos with a chill running down his spine. Too many thoughts were racing through his mind. There were so many clones. Why was Giovanni so hell bent on creating a powerful, yet controllable pokemon? Is this Subject C the reason Giovanni has those giant claw marks on his face? They were going to experiment on that little baby mew-thing he just saw? There is abra DNA in that mewtwo? Why does the name mew sound so familiar? The fuck is a mew? He stewed in his thoughts until he noticed someone walk into the room, making him quickly throw the ancient journal in his bag before pretending to read one of the nonsensical textbooks.

The scientist looked around the room before his eyes landed on Cobalt. The trainer pretended not to notice the man approaching him. 

“Hello? Are you Cobalt?” He asked, as if there was literally anyone else who COULD be Cobalt.

“Yeah, and you are?” He asked, putting down the book and picking up the incubator.

The man sat down across from the trainer, “Name’s Dr. Shiro. I’ve been assigned to keep track of you. You know, make sure your training progresses according to plan and to make sure you don’t get into anything-”

“You can just say you're babysitting me, I get it,” Cobalt said, catching the man off guard, maybe he can get some information from this man.“So, what is this creature that Giovanni’s having me train?”

Dr. Shiro clasped his hands together, “That would be a mewtwo. A clone of the legendary mew.” 

“Is mew a legendary?” The trainer asked, his attention suddenly caught.

“Oh yes. Mew is the first species of pokemon to exist, but they all went extinct ages ago. We cloned this specimen from a small fossil we found in the jungle.”

Cobalt sat the incubator on his lap and clasped his own hands, “What did this legendary look like? It looks like you have a cat in that tank back there.”

The man seemed less confused by the weird teen and more excited by the new question and pulled out his phone, “I wasn’t involved in the trip to the mew shrine, but I have a copy of some of the carvings on my phone,” he held out his phone to the trainer. On the screen was a blocky wall carving of a cat-like creature with one foot in the air and its arms out. Dr. Shiro swiped the screen and another carving of the same creature appeared, it was flying with a long tail looped behind it.

Cobalt was dumbstruck. He’s  _ seen _ those creatures. They weren’t extinct. He saw  _ two _ just yesterday. Those tiny cat things he’s been chasing for  _ years _ are  _ legendary _ ? 

“Oh, neat,” was all he could say. He completely forgot about the clone. He’s been chasing  _ legendaries _ ? He rested his chin on the incubator, lost in the hurricane in his brain.

“My turn for questions,” the scientist leaned forward, “The boss said you were chosen to train the asset because you had experience with psychics, who's your psy type?”

Shaken from his train of thought, Cobalt responded, “Oh, I don’t have any psychic pokemon, I was mostly raised by my mother’s kadabra. They left a lot for ‘business trips’ so Carmella babysat me, but they don’t spend a lot of time with me even when they are home so she basically raised me,” He paused and looked down at the incubator, “Actually I take back what I said, I do have a psychic in my team,” He gestured to the incubator.

The expression on the scientist's face was grave, probably just expecting the trainer to have a Mr. Mime or something, “Wow, that's...rough. And you have psychic powers?”

“Uh, yeah a little bit, I can levitate things, read minds to an extent, and float a little bit.”

Dr. Shiro went still, “You’re not in my head right now, are you?” 

“Dude the only things I use my psychic powers for is to cheat on math tests and steal shit out of vending machines. I’m not reading your mind, besides, you’d probably notice the psychic connection if I tried.”

“Psychic connection?” the scientist asked.

“Yeah it's kinda like a little buzz in your brain,”

Dr. Shiro made a small thinking sound to himself.

Cobalt cracked his knuckles absently, “Anymore questions?”

The man leaned back in his chair, “Yes, what do you have planned for your life? Are you going to go to school or are you going to continue working for the Cinnabar Laboratory?”

The trainer dragged a hand across his face, “Ugh, that's such an old person question.”

Dr. Shiro laughed at that, “Look kid, I’m just trying to keep you out of trouble while they get the asset ready, and this is a great way to keep you busy.”

Cobalt leaned back in his chair, threw his legs over the table, and rested his arms behind his head, the incubator resting against his chest, “Fair enough fair enough. I want to go out on a journey and study legendaries.”

“Why do you want to study legendaries?”

“Cause those guys are cool as shit. Some people say they exist and some don’t. Some we have photographic evidence of and some we don’t. Some literally control space and time. Frick dude God is a legendary, what's not cool about them?”

Dr. Shiro’s phone buzzed and he checked his notifications, “Well, now you're gonna get your first experience with a legendary, they have it ready for you.”

“What took them so long?” the trainer yawned, his lack of sleep catching up to him.

“Well, they had to remove it from the tank, give it its vaccinations, take some DNA samples, measure and weigh it, and administer a drug to wake it up.” The trainer made a small noise of acknowledgement, that explanation made sense to him.

Cobalt grabbed his bag and incubator and followed the man to the interrogation room. He looked around the green bricked room and peered through the large window in the center of the wall. On the other side of the glass was a small blue creature sitting in the center of the room, covered in bandages. It looked around the room with wide eyes, observing everything there was to see in the empty room. It had a thin blanket wrapped around its shoulders. It seemed oblivious to their presence, so Cobalt guessed the window was one-way. He glanced over to the other side of the room and saw a table and some chairs stacked in the corner; he guessed they were removed from the other room so the clone couldn’t weaponize them, but it seemed so small and harmless to him.

“Is the whole interrogation room necessary?” the trainer asked.

“Well, we were saving it for someone else, and we didn’t have anywhere else to put it. And we want to make sure it won’t attack us on sight. Once you can confirm that it won’t kill us all, we’ll let you take it home.” Dr. Shiro said, sitting in the computer chair in front of the glass. 

“Wow alright. Some teens actually have a will to live you know.” he mumbled anxiously before walking into the room with the clone. The small creature's head snapped in the trainer's direction, ears shoved forward. It was shivering with droplets of the strange orange liquid dripping off of it. Cobalt could see the resemblance between the creature in front of him and the wild mews he saw the other day. When he said he was going to take one of those creatures (he now knew as mew) home if it was the last thing he did, he didn’t expect it to be like this.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

As soon as Cobalt made eye contact with the mewtwo they connected minds and it dug through the entirety of the trainer’s memory. The sheer force of the psychic power that invaded the trainer’s brain knocked the air out of him and made him fall to his knees while his entire life quite literally flashed before his eyes. And in a moment it was over. He felt something warm drip down his nose and knew it was bleeding. He looked back to the clone, who stared at the wall in a dissociative state, its body tense and frozen; its breathing laboured.. The trainer hesitantly connected minds again to see the creature mulling over all of the new forein data, for a few moments it seemed overwhelmed, before it began to organize the new memories into various categories, similar to that of computer folders. Cobalt felt almost sympathetic to it trying to organize and figure out the entire new language in its arsonal, it really didn’t know anything about anything, the only thing stopping him from feeling pity was the annoyance at how rough the clone was with his brain. It could have busted some brain vessels and killed him instantly if it wanted to. 

The clone looked back at him with a calculating look and attempted to speak.

“M-mew. Mew?” it meowed. 

“Pfff, you sound kinda like a meowth,” Cobalt said, a grin growing on his face at the noise, his anger subsiding. This is a cat. This is a straight up cat. It may have had some more canid kadabra traits, but this is a cat. Maybe if he tried to speak to it telepathically it would figure it out.

“ _ Try talking like this, with your mind. But, like, carefully though, I don’t need you blowing my brains out by speaking. _ _ ”  _

_ “ _ _ Like...Like this? _ _ ”  _ The mew clone tried again

“Yeah there you go,” the trainer said, noticing that the clone’s voice sounded neither male or female.

The mewtwo tilted its head, “ _ Why speak like that when you can speak with your mind _ ?”

The trainer shrugged, he guessed it would feel strange for a fellow psychic to switch between verbal and nonverbal communication, “Force of habit, I guess,”

He could see the mewtwo digging through the new memories it snagged from the trainer, “ _ Cobalt is your name? _ ” It swished its tail. The trainer nodded. “ _ Like the color of your hair!”  _ it said excitedly, making him self conscious about his short dyed hair _ “Then...What is my name? Who am I? _ ” The trainer sat down against the wall next to the clone. That was a heavy question, what was he supposed to say to a creature thrust into the world with full sapience. Giovanni created an entire ass person and expected Cobalt to explain the entire complexity of existence to it. 

“I can’t tell you that, that's something you’re gonna have to learn on your own. But I can help you if you want,”

The feline pulled at one of the bandaids on its wrist, deep in thought, “ _ I would like that...Where are we? What am I? Why am I here? _ ” He needed a second to think. This cat was gonna give Cobalt an existential crisis and he wasn’t even the clone.

“Well, we’re in Cinnabar Mansion, you're a mewtwo, and I’m not sure why you’re here, I just know that some scientists made you from mew DNA.” An image of a trainer on an aerodactyl chasing two small legendaries flashed between them. The image was followed by an image of all of the journal pages that the trainer had read.

“ _...Mew.... hmm... I don’t want to be experimented on. _ ” it said, thinking about the journal entries and wincing when the bandaid pulled some of its fur off. He could see some dried blood and bruising underneath the fur. Cobalt snapped his fingers at a sudden idea. He grabbed his bag and angled it away from the glass window, can’t have Dr. Shiro knowing he ran off with the journal, and grabbed a spray bottle. 

“Let me see your hand,” The mewtwo held out its three-fingered hand as instructed and the trainer sprayed the back of its hand with the bottle. Within seconds the bruising vanished and the small cut where the tank tube connected to its veins healed over.

“ _ A Potion, _ ” It observed, thinking of all the times Cobalt healed his team.

“Heck yeah. Pop off those bandaids tiny nerd, let's get you all fixed up.” The clone did as instructed and helped the trainer remove the bandaids so he could heal the wounds. The trainer ended up using the whole potion on all of the small wounds. How many fricking tubes were in this poor cat? He put his hand on the feline's head and scratched behind its ear, noting the small pink star in the center of its forehead as it leaned into the scritches. The mewtwo looked into the one way window, sensing the presence of another person.

“ _ Who’s that? _ ” it asked, also suddenly feeling self conscious; though Cobalt didn’t know what it had to be self conscious about.

“That’s Dr. Shiro, he wanted to make sure you were nice before he let you go see the world.” he said.

“ _ The same one who wrote in the journal? _ ” it swished its tail again.

“ _ Uh, yeah, but I stole that so you know don’t mention that to anyone. _ ” the trainer answered telepathically. It nodded in response. 

The trainer held up his five-fingered hand, and the mewtwo placed its three-fingered hand against his. He had seen it in the tank, but now he could truly see the unique nature of the creature in front of him. Its fur was a soft pastel blue, that darkened into a sky blue at the tail. It had stripes on its arms, legs, tail, and the weird neck cord it had. He hesitantly reached out and brushed his fingers against the neck cord and the clone shuddered at the contact. Cobalt noted the short, soft fur; it was thinner and shorter than kadabra fur, and softer. The fur got thicker around the chest, but definitely shorter than the mane kadabras had. It stared back at him with large, purple eyes. The clone gently grabbed the human’s hand and inspected it, baffled by the trainer's own biology. It looked at the trainer’s furless skin, plantigrade legs, smaller eyes and dull teeth. He was the first human this clone had ever seen. The first person it had ever met. He could feel the overwhelmed energy bombarding his brain.

They sat against the wall for over an hour talking back and forth; about mew, the scientists, Giovanni, Cobalt’s team, human culture, his family, psychic manners, legendaries, kadabra culture, etc. The feline yawned, pausing the conversation and showing off an impressive set of cat teeth.

“Are you ready to leave now?” He asked the clone, knowing the outside world was going to completely blow this child’s mind.

“ _ Yes! _ ” It said excitedly, tail lashing out behind it. Images of rolling green hills, wooded forests, sapphire oceans, and large cities quickly flashed between them.

“ _ Remember what I said before we go? _ ” He asked telepathically, not sure how much the scientist could hear.

“ _ Don’t read the scientists minds, they'll probably think i’m attacking. _ ”

“ _ Good boy, er, girl… you don’t have a gender do you? _ ” It tilted its head, confused.

“ _ We’ll figure out some pronouns and a name for you when we get home, _ ”

Cobalt stood up and tapped the window, “Alright Shiro let us out, it's safe.”

“Are you sure?” the scientist’s voice muffled through the glass. 

“Do I look dead to you?” The trainer folded his arms, “This is a literal child, you won’t die.” He felt the scientist give him a wary look, probably staring at the crusted blood under his nose.

Dr. Shiro slowly opened the door and stood back, “Congrats on your success in taming it,”

“No prob Bob. So, I’m just allowed to take them home? Spooky man in the suit doesn’t want me to stop in every now and then? Write nerd notes? Anything?” Cobalt helped the shaky legged cat walk out into the rest of the lab.

“The boss wants you to report in once a month to check in on its training and to have it battled.”

Cobalt stopped in his tracks, “He wants to battle them? That’d be like fighting an abra! You can’t just punch a child!” He gestured to the small cat, still holding the blanket around it’s narrow shoulders.

The man sighed and adjusted his glasses, “Orders are orders, kid.”

* * *

Once they were outside Cobalt released Quicksilver, the giant pterosaur towering over the tiny clone. The mewtwo was swiveling its head in every direction, drinking in all the new sights, smells, and sounds around it. Its eyes absolutely huge in its head, stared up at the aerodactyl with wonder. Flashes of memories of Cobalt carrying around the fossil’s egg and raising it from a baby passed between them. A sense of familiarity glowed in the clone's heart.

“ _ A clone… Like me! _ ” It started levitating in excitement. It reached out and touched the reptile's scaly skin.

“Yeah, at the lab I work at we clone extinct pokemon from the DNA we obtain from fossils. My parents saw how well I took care of Orchid when she was a baby eevee and gave me Quicksilver’s egg to raise.” He climbed onto the back of the aerodactyl and helped the awkward cat up as well. 

“ _ Where are we going? _ ” It asked, observing the scars on Quicksilver’s hide.

“Home,”

The speed and force in which Quicksilver took off nearly sent the mewtwo hurdling off her back. Cobalt felt the air get knocked out of him a second time that day when the clone tightly wrapped its arms around him to prevent falling off, It buried its face in his blue jacket. Between the speed they were flying at, and the tightness of the clones grip, Cobalt had some difficulty keeping a strong hold on the incubator. Slowly, the mewtwo became comfortable with the feeling of flying and looked around, his eyes growing wide at the city beneath them. Hundreds of people were walking around, along with dozens of various sapient pokemon. The trainer could feel the questions bubbling up inside the clone. 

Despite how large Cinnabar Island seemed to the mewtwo, the trainer knew it wasn’t a large town, and soon enough Quicksilver landed in their front yard with a soft thud, the rosy rays of the setting sun cast everything in a golden hue. The trainer’s house was located just outside of city limits. A medium sized house with a decent sized yard stood before them. Cobalt hopped off the aerodactyl’s back and helped the clone down. He gave Quicksilver some scratches behind her horns, and watched her fly off and land on top of the roof, where she had built herself a nest. 

“You ready?” he asked. The mewtwo stopped staring at everything and nodded. They walked inside. His parents were watching tv in the front room, it took them a moment to see that their kid had returned. His parents' eyes grew wide at the sight of the clone.

“Why the fuck is it out of the lab!?” His mother shouted, his dad frozen in fear.

“They gave them to me,” Cobalt said slowly, why were they reacting this way to the small clone? 

“Get it out of here.” his father quietly demanded. Silence gathered thickly in the room, the only noise was the blaring of the tv. 

“No. Your boss gave me them. If you didn’t want me to have them then you shouldn’t have let him give them to me.” he moved the incubator to one arm and threw his other arm in front of the clone protectively. His mother glared daggers at him.

“Fine. but it stays outside.” she slowly stated, her words drenched in poison.

“ _ No. _ It's a person. I won’t let them be tethered outside like a dog.” He stomped his foot for emphasis. His mother seemed to swell in anger.

“You dare speak against your mother!?” She was shouting again. Cobalt stood taller.

“My statement stands.” 

She huffed angrily and stormed out of the room. His dad looked on in silence, then looked back to the tv without a word, falling into the void of watching trainers battle the local gym. Cobalt looked back at the mewtwo, who was cowering behind him. He gave them a gentle pat and led them into the backyard. 

Once outside he released his team and set the incubator down in the grass. The clone squinted against the flash of light. The mewtwo observed the trainer’s team with fascination. Orchid shook out her fur and immediately jumped into Cobalt’s open arms. He laughed and nuzzled the leafeon before she settled around his shoulders.

“I know I know I missed you two,” He laughed, relieved at the break in tension, “Are you okay?” he asked, turning back to the cat.

“ _ I think so, _ ”

“ _ Everyone alright out here? _ ” He heard Carmella’s voice drift into his mind, like a balm against his parents harsh voices. He heard the sliding door slide shut and looked over to see her floating in his direction. 

“Yeah Cam, we’re good.” he said and hugged her, she returned the embrace. Cobalt looked over his team, Ignus was rolling in the grass, Mizuko was flying loops through the calm air, and Quicksilver was perched on top of the roof. Carmella looked over the small mewtwo thoughtfully.

“ _ And who is this? _ ” she asked, thoughtfully observing the clone’s kadabra characteristics.

“We don’t have a name for them yet, but they’re a mewtwo. Some sketchy dude named Giovanni gave them to me,” he noticed the shiver she gave at the mention of the man's name, “You know him?”

“ _...I’ve met him, _ ”

“On one of my parent’s ‘business trips?’” Cobalt asked. She nodded her head.

“ _ They work for him when they’re not at the laboratory here. They didn’t want you to get involved with him,”  _ She nervously tapped her dull claws together, _ “The stuff he does...isn’t exactly legal. _ ” Something clicked in the trainer’s brain. He looked over at the clone next to him, who was watching Mizuko fly with great fascination.

“They’re an illegal clone, aren’t they,” it was more of a statement than a question. Carmella swished her tailin response.

“ _ Maybe if they were a pure clone like your aerodactyl, but gene splicing like this is highly illegal. _ ” She clicked her claws absentmindedly, “ _ Back in the day a professor in Galar named Cara Liss who did many experiments like this, and many more worse. Most of her clones died in the tank, and those that survived had severe health issues and died shortly after removal. The league arrested her ages ago, but some of her more ‘humane’clones survived and bred in captivity, though their quality of life is debatable. _ ” She looked on at the mew clone investigating the yard with an almost sorrowful expression. 

Cobalt studied the fox’s face, “What’s going on in there? I haven’t seen that look since I got bit by an arbok,” Carmella paused, before letting out a sigh, her whole body deflating.

“ _ A lot of things really. Your parents owe Giovanni a great debt. I hoped that they wouldn’t drag you into anything to do with him and his group of thugs, but I guess here we are...This isn’t the first mewtwo that's been made either, and I can’t guarantee their long term health _ ,” She buried her face in her hands, “ _ You’ve been dragged into such a mess, _ ” 

Cobalt watched the clone wobbly float into the air and chase his dragonair, “What did they do to owe this guy so much?” She suddenly froze at the question, and completely blocked the trainer out of her mind. She seemed to shrink to half her size.

“ _ That… is not my place to say… Let's find a name for your new partner, got any ideas? _ ” She responded, blatantly trying to change subjects. She seemed stressed enough, he could bother her for a proper answer later.

The sun slipped under the horizon, casting everything in shadows. He glanced over to the mewtwo, who was looking like they were about to pounce on a caterpie, and scratched Orchid behind her ears..

‘Well, they’re blue, and a mewtwo, how uncreative would it be if I named them Bluetwo? Get it cause they’re a mewtwo, and their blue,” He grinned at his own bad joke, and at the grin involuntarily growing on the kadabra’s face.

“ _ Incredibly uncreative, _ ” She said telepathically while laughing verbally, making an almost yipping like sound.

“ _ I’m fine with it, _ ” the clone said, casually reclined in the air above them. Both kadabra and trainer yelped and stumbled back in surprise. Cobalt put one hand against his heart, and one on Orchid to prevent her from falling off his shoulder. He looked at the clone, a dead bug in their jaws, tail swishing, pupils huge in the low light. 

“My gods dude give me a warning next time,” he laughed anxiously, “You alright being named Bluetwo, or maybe Blue for short? At least until you find one you really like?”

Bluetwo dropped the dead bug and yawned, “ _ Yeah, I’m happy with that, _ ” Carmella yawned at well.

“ _ I think it's time for me to sleep, _ ” She turned to Blue, “ _ I have no idea if you're nocturnal or not, but I’m sure you're exhausted after today. _ ” She gestured to Cobalt’s team, Ignus and Mizuko were both asleep in their shared giant dog house, Quicksilver could be heard snoring from her nest on the roof, and Orchid was dozing on his shoulders. 

“Sounds great to me, g’night Cam, also sorry for pissing off mom and dad earlier, I know that upsets you,” He said, grabbing the incubator and started making his way towards the backdoor. She shook her head.

“ _ Don’t you worry about a thing dear, I’ve had to deal with their nonsense since before you were born, they’ll get over it. _ ” He nodded and quietly led Bluetwo through the house and into his room. He pulled a sleeping bag out of his closet, helped the clone settle down and zip up the sleeping bag, set the incubator on his dresser, took off his jacket and just went to bed fully clothed. In the darkness he could see Blue trying to get comfy on the floor. His leafeon, who usually slept at the foot of his bed, jumped down and curled up around the mew clone. Cobalt could see the faint glow of the incubator outline his room, and could feel the other psychic sifting through all of the new memories and knowledge they had. They’ve only been conscious for a day and so much has happened already, it overwhelmed the small feline. The trainer himself stared vacantly at the ceiling, in the span of two days he had become a parent twice, and he felt almost as overwhelmed as the clone did.


	4. Chapter 4

Golden sunlight filtered through his blinds, bathing his room in warm light. Cobalt slowly blinked awake, noting the warmth of the old leafeon laying against his side. Memories of the previous days slowly came back. He shot up and panicked when he couldn’t feel a psychic presence in the room (much to Orchid’s displeasure), briefly wondering if everything had just been a dream, before seeing the ruffled sleeping bag on the floor. He felt a pair of psychic presences in the yard, and sleepily wandered outside, squinting against the harsh sunlight.

A pair of psychics were flying and twirling through the early morning rays. Apon catching sight of Cobalt, Bluetwo flew down and knocked the air out of him in a tackle hug.

“Good morning to you too I guess,” He coughed. The cat was practically vibrating with excitement, their tail swishing back and forth.

“ _The world is so BIG and Miss Carmella showed me where to find different berries and we found these awesome pink berries that were really good and I got to chase a flock of pidgey and it was great!_ ” Cobalt smiled at the mew clone and ruffed up his fur. He looked over to see Carmella floating town to their level.

“ _The little one was restless so I showed them around the wilds off the route and away from town,_ ” the kadabra said casually, “ _You might want to get them registered to a pokeball before we take them anywhere someone might see them,_ ” The little clone perked up at the suggestion.

“ _Why do I need a pokeball? I like being outside,_ ” they said, they twitched their tail nervously. Cobalt could tell what they were anxious about.

“Don’t worry bud if you don’t want to be in a pokeball I won’t make you, we just need to have you go in one long enough for it to scan your DNA and make sure no other trainer can catch you.” He patted his waist, looking for his bag of pokeballs, before remembering that he left them in his room with the incubator and sleepy leafeon.

“ _How does that work?_ ” Bluetwo tilted their head quizzically, looking less anxious. Carmella beat Cobalt to the answer.

“ _Once inside a pokeball, the computer inside alters your DNA ever so slightly, not enough to cause any damage or visual changes, but enough to prevent you being captured into another pokeball. When a pokemon is captured, the ball scans the DNA of the individual and creates a sort of ‘microchip’ in your genetic structure. If you're registered to one of Cobalt’s pokeballs then if someone throws a pokeball at you, it will scan that ‘microchip’, see that you're already someone else's, and shut off. A clever idea by the League to prevent everyone from stealing everyone else's pokemon._ ” 

The clone paused to process the information, he glanced back to Carmella and hesitantly asked, “ _Will it hurt?_ ” The kadabra smiled.

“ _Not at all dear, think of it like sleeping, everything will feel dark and weightless, and time will pass like your asleep as well. You’ll be aware of the passage of time, but it’ll feel pretty fast, no matter how long you're in there. When Cobalt taps the ball against you, you might feel kinda tingly and numb, or disoriented, but it’ll pass. I’ve been inside a pokeball loads of times. You have nothing to worry about._ ” She said calmly, tail swishing slowly. Bluetwo puffed out their small chest and put on the bravest face they could muster.

“ _Okay, i’ll do it,_ ”

The three went back inside, not having to worry about running into Cobalt’s parents, as they were already at work. The two psychics sat on the couch while the trainer changed into some decent clothes and grabbed his bag. The trainer walked into the room, the two pokemon seemed to be having a private psychic conversation between each other. Bluetwo flicked their gaze over to the trainer when they walked in and stood up, trying to look as brave as possible.

Cobalt grabbed a Premier ball from his bag, Premier balls were always said to celebrate a special event of somesort, Cobalt didn’t know what that event was, but he felt a special pokemon like the mewtwo in front of him called for a special pokeball.

“You ready for this bud?” he asked, showing the ball to the clone, whose pupils ballooned at the sight. They nodded and he tapped the center button against their shoulder. They shuddered slightly as they dissolved into data and vanished inside the ball. Cobalt looked down at the ball in his hands, it shuddered slightly for a moment, then the center button flashed green with a quiet _click_. He looked at Carmella, who nodded in response. He tapped the top button and the pokeball popped open with a flash of light. The next thing he knew the clone was wobbling in front of him, seemingly disoriented. 

“How you feeling?” the trainer asked, placing the ball into a notch on his belt, with the rest of his team's pokeballs. 

“ _Dizzy,_ ” they responded, grabbing their head. Carmella gave them a gentle pat on the shoulder, “ _You did great dear, let's get you both some breakfast,_ ” She patted the clones shoulder again, _“_ _Pecha berries hardly count as a proper meal._ ”

* * *

Bluetwo followed behind Cobalt and Carmella, listening to them chat about miscellaneous subjects. The group had made the trip to town on the back of Ignus, but now deep in city limits, they walked. They wove between the city's inhabitants, trying not to draw attention to themselves, though Blue felt their existence did enough of that on their own. Within the company of Cobalt and Carmella, they felt normal, or at least as close to normal as they have felt in their two days of existence; but out here, surrounded by humans and various sapient pokemon, they felt like a magikarp out of water. The constant stares made them all too aware of their unusual blue fur, the fear they felt in everyone's minds made them tremendously self conscious of their alien appearance. Not quite kadabra, not quite mew, not quite whatever else was in their genetics. The few kadabra they passed gave the clone a particularly wide berth, unnerved by their mix of alien and familiar characteristics. Before they knew it their vision started to cloud over. Everything seemed to swirl around them, their breathing became laboured as their gaze flicked between all the staring eyes. Everywhere they looked there were more and more onlookers. Their body froze and trembled in place as they succumbed to the oncoming panic attack. Soon they noticed that their companions had drifted further and further away and a bolt of adrenaline lanced through them, electricity lighting their veins. They teleported next to Cobalt and buried their face into his jacket.

Bluetwo huddled close against Cobalt’s side, trying to hide from the prying eyes of pedestrians. The trainer seemed aware of the effect the clone had on the townsfolk, and slipped his jacket over the shoulders of the mewtwo, flipping the hood over the clones head. Carmella, sensing the unease of everyone around them obscured Blue’s profile with her fluffy tail. Perhaps the decision to take them to a cafe in the center of town was a less than brilliant idea. 

Cobalt glared at the onlookers, trying to dissuade the stares, “Maybe… We should stop by a clothing store first, so Blue won’t be so noticeable,” The clone nodded slightly.

“ _I would like that,_ ” They felt completely and totally overwhelmed and self conscious, and they knew the trainer could feel it radiating off of them, which only amplified their emotions. They maneuvered through a few back alleys, to avoid prying eyes, before eventually making it to a small clothing shop. They browsed the various articles for a bit, each grabbing something for themselves. Carmella purchased a large, flowery gardening hat to match her robe and Cobalt got himself a fancy studded leather jacket that just screamed Not Straight, as well as a tiny, abra-sized hoodie and beanie for the egg. Bluetwo, now decked out in a large hoodie and a cloak to hide their tail, felt much more confident in their appearance. With everyone decked out and everything paid for the three made their way to the cafe. 

With the hood hiding his face, the clone was able to search the crowd and truly appreciate the view of the town. The local shops, small houses, towering trees, vibrant flowers; with less eyes on them, they could take in the vastness and colors of everything in a far less intimidating light. They still felt the calculating stares and anxious telepathy of the occasional kadabra or Mr. Mime, but with Cobalt and Carmella on each side of them it made it easier to ignore. With the attention taken off of them they were able to notice more small things, like tiny flowers growing out of the concrete, wild meowths spatting over territory, pidgeys and starlys singing their melodies to the skies. 

A small red building, cloaked in flowered vines and surrounded by small round picnic tables loomed in front of them. Bluetwo’s eyes grew wide at the sight. Their attention flicked between the myriad of bird and bug pokemon that resided on the property. The three entered the cafe, Cobalt having to drag Blue away from a sleeping metapod by the door. The sounds of muffled birdsong, hushed conversations, and various footsteps echoed inside the cafe. The clone followed the two to a small unnoticeable table in the back and glanced at the menu. The incubator clincked slightly as it was set down, and an almost unnoticeable peep mirrored the sound inside.

“ _What’re all of these?_ ” they asked, gesturing to the menu in general. Cobalt glanced over at them.

“Uh yeah we’re getting you either Moomoo Milk or Pinap Juice. We are not getting you coffee.” the trainer stated before turning their attention back to the menu.

“ _Why not?_ ” 

“I don’t wanna see you on caffeine, we also don’t know if anything in your DNA is allergic to caffeine.” he said as the waiter came up to grab their orders, Blue looked away to avoid eye contact. After they ordered they all withdrew into their own thoughts. 

Blue looked around at several of the other customers, observing them live their completely normal lives, completely oblivious to the cloned legendary’s existence. Questions began to bubble inside the clone. They tapped their claws against the table anxiously.

“ _Hey, uh, Cobalt?_ ”

“What’s up?” the trainer put down their phone to focus on Blue.

“ _Out of all of these people, why was I given to you?_ ”

Cobalt furrowed his brow, seemingly caught off guard, while Carmella turned the other direction, “I guess since I’m psychic Giovanni thought I’d be more qualified? Maybe my parents had told him that I wanted to study legendaries and he had one? He wouldn’t care if you went feral and killed me instead of him? I don’t know, I’m not complaining though, you’re a pretty cool dude.” He reached under the hood and ruffled the fur between the cat’s odd ears. 

Bluetwo perked up at the mention of legendaries, they remembered accidentally stealing those memories earlier, but hearing the trainer say it made them feel a little less like a burden.

“ _Why do you want to investigate legendaries?_ ” they asked.

The trainer mimicked the clone by tapping his fingertips on the table, “I dunno, I’ve just always thought they were pretty neat,” he held his head in his hands, starting to dissociate, “I always planned that once I was old enough to go on a journey I’d leave and go study the various regions’ legendaries.” The waiter returned with their drinks, making Bluetwo shrink into their hoodie. As soon as the waiter left the clone perked back up.

“ _Why didn’t you do that?_ ” their tail thumped against the floorboards.

“My parents’ never let me. Which I guess I deserved, I _did_ have a tendency to _disappear_ whenever they took me on their business trips,” He smirked and set a few pokeballs on the table, “That is how I got most of my team, I kept wandering off and kept bringing home new friends. Brought Orchid home when I was five and she was still a baby eevee, caught Mizuko with my bare hands from the river when I was seven, got Ignis from a kid who’s arcanine had pups the year after,” he rambled, counting on his fingers with each listed pokemon.

Bluetwo made a hum of acknowledgement, something didn’t quite add up so he dug through some of Cobalt’s stolen memories. Then it clicked.

“ _Why haven’t you left to do that? You’re an adult now, your parents’ can’t legally stop you now_ ,”

Cobalt, completely caught off guard, almost choked on his komala coffee, “Oh, uh, I’m kinda staying home to, uh, stay with Carmella,” Blue tilted their head and Cobalt sighed, “Carmella technically belongs to my mom, and she can’t go on her merry way while she’s still registered to Mom’s pokeball and... I don’t want to leave her alone with them. I’m waiting for Mom to release her from the pokeball so she can go back to the village with her girlfriend,”

Carmella ran her claws through her mane, “ _And_ I’ve _told you that I’d be fine if you left. Your mother can’t keep me forever_ ,”

“And leave you there with both of them fighting all the time and big ol edgeboy Gio looking down on them? No thank you,” the trainer countered. It was the kadabra’s turn to tap her claws against the table.

“ _Honey I’ve been dealing with them for longer than you’ve been_ alive _, I can easily handle them and their shit for as long as I need to,_ ”

Cobalt smirked, “Oh yeah? And what about Cherri?” Carmella’s telepathy was instantly flustered. 

Before the kadabra could come up with a solid argument the waiter returned with their breakfast. They ate on, seemingly in silence, but judging by intense staredown the other two were having and Cobalt’s smug expression, Blue guessed they were having a private telepathic dispute. Carmella tore her gaze away and lashed her tail, before inevitably returning to their private conversation.

A miniscule sound entered the corner of Blue’s consciousness and they flicked their ear in the relative direction of the sound’s source. Another, slightly louder noise caught their attention and they flicked both ears towards the incubator, the small form inside seemed to shutter slightly.

“ _Uhhh, guys?_ ” They said, trying to drag the two out of their psychic argument. Blue glanced between the two and the quietly peeping egg.

“ _Guys?_ ” they tried again, to no avail.

“ _Guys!_ ” they raised their voice, not quite a shout, but definitely enough to break up the others’ dispute.

“What?” the trainer asked, sounding mildly perturbed. Blue only pointed at the egg slightly rocking inside the incubator. The clone could hear the gasps emanating from the pair, their eyes growing wide. The egg slowly rocked from side to side, making small peeping noises the whole time, though the peeps were quickly turning into more of a canid-like yip. The smallest of cracks marred the pristine shell. 

“Hey Cam, what am I supposed to do with a hatching abra? Help it out of the shell? Leave it? Order it a glass of Moomoo Milk?” Cobalt asked almost nervously, watching the egg with fascination.

“ _Hold it, but don’t help it out, they’ll need some time to absorb the yolk and remaining blood vessels, but it won’t take them that long. All you need to do is talk to them psychically until they're out. If they hear your psychic voice while they hatch they’ll understand that you're their mother,_ ” The kadabra responded casually. The trainer slowly opened the incubator and gently picked up the small egg. It fit so perfectly into the palm of his hand. 

“Why is hatching? It's only been a few days?” he asked, concern etched into his features.

“Kadabra eggs only incubate for a little over a month, this one was already almost ready to leave,” Carmella reassured him, giving him a gentle pat on the back..

Blue leaned over slightly to get a better view. They couldn’t hear anything but they could tell the trainer was privately coaxing the kit out of its shell. So this is how a natural creature enters this world. With some quiet peeps and the fracturing of a shell, not by having their incubation tank drained and having a thousand tubes ripped from their body and tossed into an empty room. The clone sat there in silence, watching the fractures grow across the shell’s surface. This being is entering the world in the hands of its parent, in a warm building, practically glowing with sunlight, and filled to the brim with the delightful smells of freshly baked goods and beverages. That seemed like absolute heaven to the mewtwo. They entered the world in a cold, underground laboratory, with scientists cutting skin samples out of their limbs for the purpose of creating more; they had a scratchy blanket shoved across their shoulders and plopped down in a musty, mold scented room, with the only light being the harsh, cold, flickering lights that hung overhead. The newborn kit will be able to walk the streets and be seen as completely normal, without the fear of being seen, or attacked, or captured by others for being “unique”.

They sighed at the luck of the kit, feeling a twinge of jealousy. Bluetwo shook their head slightly, they recognized the emotion from Cobalt’s memories, and knew that acting on emotions like that never ended well. Besides, they’re enjoying the sights and smells now, absorbing the warm of the sun now, and they know that Cobalt, his team, and Carmella will protect them from anyone trying to kidnap them. They should appreciate their newfound freedom and enjoy all the little things in life now that the worst was over. 

A quiet gasp and a not so quiet yip snapped Blue back to reality. A tiny vulpine form rested in the trainers hand, Carmella gently moving the broken shell bits away from the hatchling. They were tiny, easily fitting into Cobalt’s hand, they blinked their large eyes open and looked around. Their eyes were a warm brown, their fur a soft, light yellow, their mane brown, but with the slightest fuchsia tint to it. They squeaked, and shook the remaining moisture from their fur.

The trainer cooed at the kit, _very_ carefully petting their head, as if he thinks he’ll break the baby if he pats them too hard. He looked over at the clone and held out the baby, “Want to hold her Blue?” The clone flicked their ears back, what if _they_ broke it? Despite their growing anxiety, they held out their hands. She was so small. She yawned, bearing her tiny teeth, and curled her long tail around their wrist. Their breath caught in their throat. They could feel every breath her tiny lungs took in, and every tiny heartbeat, and the tiniest of psychic presences poking at their brain.

“ _Well? What’re you going to name her?_ ” the kadabra asked, nudging the awestruck trainer. He looked lost in thought for a moment, before a mischievous smile crept across his face.

“Spoons,” he said, fitting as much annoyingness into his response as humanly possible, making Carmella give an offended gasp.

“ _You are doing no such thing!_ ” she scolded and smacked Cobalt with a napkin, causing him to burst out laughing.

“I’m kidding I’m kidding!” he wheezed midlaugh, still getting smacked by napkins.

“ _You better be or I’ll put an end to your bloodline!_ ”

“I’m already putting an end to my bloodline! I’m ace!” the trainer countered and put his hand to his chest in fake offense, “Besides, you’d be lonely if you killed me,” The kadabra snorted.

“ _I know you, you’d be too stubborn to die and just come back a gastly or something. Then I’d just kick your butt again_ ,” she smirked.

“But then I’d have the typing advantage,” Cobalt taunted.

Bluetwo, completely absorbed in watching the now snoozing kit, lost track of their conversation. A name? Surely they could think of a decent name for her. What was a good girl name, better question, what was a girl? The clone dug through their stolen memories and only got the vaguest of clarification. Maybe it would be easier thinking of a name by going off of the names of the trainer’s team. They didn’t completely understand the name of Mizuko, something about a child of water, Ignis meant something about fire. Quicksilver was… a weird metal? And Orchid was a type of flower. The clone looked around at the various potted plants and vines that grew inside the cafe. Their attention catching on some white flowered vines. Hmm. They recognized them from Cobalt’s memories. Digging yet again through the trainer’s memories they recalled that he had planted some on the side of Ignis’ dog house a few years back because he thought they were pretty until the giant dog accidentally burned them all by sneezing later. An idea blazed into their brain.

They got the attention of the other two by clearing their throat, besides talking via telepathy.

“ _I think I have an idea for a name,_ ”


	5. Chapter 5

A bright red frisbee glided overhead, leaving a small breeze in its wake. Its flight was abruptly put to an end when a large canine leapt into the air and punctured it with his fangs. The arcanine smugly padded back over to the mewtwo sitting on the doorstep. The clone removed the toy from the dog’s grasp with his telepathy, then threw it again, helping the tattered frisbee fly straight with said telepathy. He tapped his claws anxiously, and shot a glance at the trainer next to him, who was sitting idly on their phone. 

“You alright there bud?” Cobalt asked, taking a photo of Ignis catching the frisbee midair.

Blue was hesitant in his response, “ _ Do I have to go back there? _ ” The trainer hummed in response, uncertain on how to calm the clones nerves. 

“It’ll be okay, it’ll just be a simple battle, you know some moves and you're a pretty tough guy, you’ll do great,” he responded, giving the unconscious abra draped around his neck a gentle pat. The ground rumbled lightly as Ignis trotted back with the toy. The clone subconsciously tossed the frisbee again. He thought back to the journal that the trainer had stolen, recalling the unfortunate fates of the previous clones. He refused to be experimented on. He refused to be trapped inside a pokeball for the rest of eternity. He felt wary towards whatever new experiment was going to take his place.

Lost in his train of thoughts, he almost didn’t notice the ominous black vehicle pull into the driveway. Cobalt dragged him from his thoughts with a gentle pat on the shoulder and entered the car, the mewtwo following close behind. Once inside the trainer returned the baby abra to her pokeball and gave the driver a wary look. Giovanni was not in the vehicle, instead was just another man in a suit pressed under the Rocket Leader’s thumb. 

“ _ Are you sure we have to keep Jasmine in her pokeball during all this? _ ” Blue asked privately, making sure the driver couldn’t hear him. Cobalt nodded.

“ _ I don’t want her getting traumatized by anything in there, _ ” he responded telepathically. Blue quietly sighed, missing the psychic company of the young abra. 

“ _ Yeah, that makes sense… _ ”

  
  


The car ride over to the abandoned mansion dragged on for a silent eternity, the driver regularly sending fearful glances towards the clone, with the trainer glaring at the driver in response. The sight of the once beautiful, rolling green hills that first filled him with amazement, now filled him with dread. 

A loud shriek abruptly interrupted the tense silence as the car lurched to the side, releasing a frightened scream from the passengers. A long beak shattered the glass and thrust towards the passengers. The driver screamed as the car skidded off the dirt road and rolled off into the rough grassland. The air filled with the screaming of metal as two pairs of talons curved under the doors and hoisted the vehicle a few inches off the ground, before dropping again with a loud thud. A cacophony of screams, shrieks, and metal squealing quickly became deafening. Cobalt looked out the broken window to see a pair of large fearows attempting to tear the car apart. A long serrated beak thrust through the window again, snapping at the occupants inside. Cobalt slammed his back against the seat to avoid being impaled, punching the bird’s bright blue eye on reflex. The trainer grabbed a pokeball off his belt and tossed it out the window, a long, serpentine body stretched out in a flash of light. 

“Mizuko! Thunderbolt!” 

The dragon looped around the birds, electricity crackling across her scales. The fearows shrieked and crashed to the ground as the electricity lanced through their body. He looked back at the clone in the back seat, who was curled up tightly in a ball, with his hands over his ears. He grabbed the driver’s hand and dragged them from the car, pulling out the mewtwo next before booking it in the direction of the mansion. Some furious squawks sounded from behind them. 

The sun momentarily got blotted out as a large shadow passed overhead. Adrenaline pounded through the trainer’s veins as the trio made a mad dash for safety. He could feel the fear radiate off of Bluetwo in waves, while the driver seemed to be in a dissociative daze. The clone shot a terrified glance towards the birds before summoning a large lavender bubble to shield the three from any oncoming attacks. One of the fearows dive bombed directly into the bubble and bounced off onto the asphalt. It picked itself up, shook out its feathers, and hissed in rage. The bird threw out its wings and stalked towards the retreating trio. It paused in front of the bubble, lowering its wings once it made eye contact with the clone. The two stared at each other for a long, tense, moment. It let out a loud squawk, backed up a few steps, and flew off towards the mansion. The other fearow quit circling overhead and followed in suit.

The trio stood there in near silence, the only sound breaking the silence was their collective hyperventilating. Cobalt ran over to Bluetwo, who was hunched over clutching his chest, and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“The fuck was that!?” The trainer shouted at the driver, fearfully glancing at the fearows’ outlines perched on the mansion’s roof in the distance. 

The driver hesitated before answering, appearing to collect himself, “A little while back they showed up. At first they just hung out, then they started attacking lone scientists as they came and went, but they’ve never attacked a group, non less a vehicle!” He said breathlessly, voice increasing in volume.

“Why?” Cobalt stated. 

The man shook his head, “I don’t know, but if this keeps up I’m retiring,”

  
  


The car abandoned, the three walked the rest of the short distance to the mansion, and while the fearow pair perched atop the roof, they left the group unscathed, keeping the clone within their eyesight. Once inside, the driver went off into a side room meant as a breakroom, while the trainer and clone were instructed to wait until Giovanni arrived. Cobalt showed Blue around the place, or at least where they were allowed; the scientists occasionally sent the clone cautious looks, but never requested he be returned to his pokeball. Eventually they made their way into the room where Blue had been incubated, and walked into a bizarre situation. 

The incubation tank was empty, sitting alone on its stand, next to it was an egg incubator, similar to those in the lab Cobalt worked at, with a ring of scientists around it. The two carefully nudged their way through the surrounding scientists until they could examine the scene themselves. Inside the incubator was a single egg, It was tiny, only about three inches in length, its shell a light, soft blue, almost white, with light pink speckles. It had several small wires suctioned to it, which led down into a compartment on the side. On the other side an unusual pokeball was hooked into the same machine. Cobalt guessed the strange pokeball was once a deep purple, with a pair of pink spots, but wasn’t sure because of the rust and dust that marred its surface. On the front of it was a faded white M. He was confused about the letter until the soft voice of Bluetwo entered his mind and reminded him of the masterball in the stolen journal.  _ Subject C… _

“So uh, what all's going on here?” Cobalt asked, gesturing to the whole setup. The scientists awkwardly glanced between Bluetwo and each other, finally one spoke up. 

“Subject E. Giovanni’s next experiment. We’re attempting to alter the DNA of the embryo with the DNA Subject C to enhance its power, and make it more controllable.” she answered.

“Aaaaand what type of egg is that? That’s definitely not an abra egg.” The trainer said, observing the contraption. 

“It's a mew egg,” The scientist responded deadpan, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. The trainer was taken aback, as was the small clone next to him.

“...Like, a real living mew egg?”

“That’s right.”

“Not a fossil?”

“Not at all.” 

“Aren’t mew extinct?” Cobalt asked, knowing full well that he has encountered living mew multiple times throughout his life, but knowing there was no way for the scientists to know that. 

“They were previously thought to be extinct, but we saw not one, but TWO hanging around the upper levels of the mansion while we were working on cloning Subject D,” She gestured towards Blue, “As it turns out, they were a pair with an egg,” Cobalt hummed thoughtfully. He guessed it would make sense for the mews to stick around the mansion, while a creature descendant of them was being created a few levels down. Perhaps they’re pack creatures?

“So you stole the mews’ egg?” He asked hesitantly.

“Correct.”

“And you didn’t think to catch one of the parents?” he asked, slightly confused.

“An adult mew wouldn’t exactly be likely to follow orders. An egg, however, has a developing embryo that we can edit and modify to make the most pure, powerful, and controllable clone yet.” She said enthusiastically. Bluetwo snorted at the comment and crossed his arms. A muffled pop could faintly be heard in the distance.

“That’s...interesting,” Cobalt said absently, stomach churning at how disturbing the statement was, “Sooo, what’s that?” he asked, gesturing to the Master Ball.

“Ah, that,” the scientist hesitated, “That’s Subject C, we’ve kept it inside the Master Ball since... The Incident.” Cobalt, despite knowing exactly what happened, decided to play dumb to attempt to get anymore information.

“What incident?”

She hesitated, “You know the boss’ scars?” she traced a few lines across her jaw, mimicking Giovanni’s mangled face. The trainer nodded. “It caused that, and hasn’t been let out since, we’re trying to alter the DNA of the mew egg with Subject C’s DNA, without releasing it from the Master Ball.” He nodded in thought, feeling the clone tense up beside him at all the information. Neither of them could imagine something like this happening to Jasmine, being screwed up before ever having a chance in the world.

Some shouts could be heard a few floors up.

“Sounds like the boss is back,” she mumbled, before hurrying back to her research. The other scientists, who had stood idle, listening in to the trainer’s conversation, all snapped back to attention to work on the machine. 

The two idly stood around and watched the scientists work, telepathically discussing the morality of the entire situation, a small, half assed plan to steal the egg passed across their minds. A cacophony of shouts and stomping continuously increased in volume until the sound of a door slamming violently silenced all ambient sounds. The pair left the room and peeked from behind a wall to see several disheveled men at the entrance to the lab. 

Giovanni stood there, pistol in hand, shouting commands to his equally disheveled bodyguards. His normally pristine suit was tarnished by blood, sleeves shredded by large gashes. Hair frazzled, eyes wild, face bloodied and bruised. 

“Where’s the damn clone?” He demanded, eyes flicking around with a dangerous spark, before landing on Bluetwo and Cobalt, “Come with me,” One of the more courageous scientists ran up to him.

“But Sir! Your arm!” he exclaimed, looking at the gashes lining the man’s flesh. 

“What about it?” Giovanni growled.

“W-well, sir, you’re bleeding…” The Team Rocket leader waved the scientist off with a huff, then gestured for the trainer and clone to follow him.

He led them up a few floors and into a large room on the opposite side of the building as the laboratory. The room was bare, save for some tattered books and a busted table shoved against the wall. The tiled floor was riddled in cracks and age-old grime, the air was dense with dust and not a single window was intact. Cobalt had that sinking feeling that he was going to be murdered in this mansion again.

“So, uh, what’s with the gun?” the trainer asked hesitantly.

“So I could kill those wretched fearow, they shouldn’t be harassing my employees anymore,”

“...oh” he could feel Blue tense up behind him.

“How has your training come along?” asked Giovanni, looming intimidatingly in the shadows by the far wall. Blue had flicked his ears back and was shaking, his breathing partially ragged, anxiety rolled off of him in waves; his eyes flicked around in all directions, always coming to rest on the gun. Cobalt nervously tapped his fingers together in a subconscious manner.

“Well we haven’t had him battle anything yet but he knows a few moves,” he offered.

Giovanni narrowed his eyes, “He?”

“Oh! Yeah, we talked to him about different pronouns and what not and he decided that he wanted to be referred to as he/him,”

The Rocket leader twisted his face in annoyance, “ _ It  _ was made by humans to  _ serve  _ humans. It is a tool. A weapon for mankind to use and control. That is all.”

The clone shrunk back from the man who ordered his creation, fear, anger, and hatred clouded the atmosphere of the room in a thick haze. The trainer himself was burning with rage, almost ready to jump the gang leader right then and there, he probably would have if he didn’t have a gun in his hand. Giovanni’s expression became smug, he pulled a pokeball from his belt and in a flash of light released a rhyhorn.

“Are you angry? Good. Why don’t you prove that amalgamation’s worth with a battle?” The trainer bared his teeth in fury and glanced at the clone who bore a similar expression, nodded in unison, and stepped back. Bluetwo took a step forward.

“Psycho Cut!”

“Tackle!”

The ground rumbled beneath their feet as the rhyhorn barreled towards the clone, who stood his ground. With one swing from his arm he slashed a long psychic blade across the rhyhorn’s thick plating. The large pokemon roared and skidded to the side before slamming its skull into the adjacent wall in a shower of dust and rubble. Cobalt quickly sifted through his typing knowledge in his mind.  _ Rhyhorn is a rock type, I think also ground? Rock is weak to water, ice, grass… Blue doesn’t know any of those type attacks. Oh shit wait! Rocks weak to fighting! Blue knows fighting! _

“Aura Sphere!”

“Drill run,”

The rhyhorn stood up and shook the rubble from its armor. A ball of condensed blue light formed between the clones hands, causing the fur on the back of his head to stand on end. The horn on the opposing pokemon’s head began to spin as it charged again. The clone waited for the last second then threw the aura sphere, which blasted the opponent square in the face. It shrieked in pain and its legs collapsed out from underneath it. With no time to move Blue got slammed into the ground under the opposing pokemon’s body weight and screamed, both from shock and pain. 

“Telekinesis!”

“Stone Edge!”

The clone’s eyes glowed purple and with a swing of his arm hoisted the rhyhorn several feet into the air. The rhyhorn flailed wildly from its skyward position in panic.

“Aura Sphere!” 

Another orb of light formed between the mewtwo’s hands before he threw it directly into the rhyhorn’s face; said pokemon shrieked in pain before going limp, its unconscious body hanging limply from the air. 

“Heck yeah!” The trainer shouted and pumped his fists in the air; the clone gently set the rhyhorn down and smiled, tail swishing proudly.

Giovanni returned his pokemon to its ball, “Don’t applaud yourself too much. While you were able to defeat my rhyhorn, your mewtwo is still rather undertrained. A properly trained clone would have been easily capable of despatching any opponent in a single move,” the man removed a napkin from a pocket inside his suit and wiped away the growing bloodstain on his sleeve, “ That is all I’ve needed to see. I am disappointed in your ability to train this pokemon. Your original deadline to train it will be shortened from six months to three. If you fail me I will have to find a new trainer for it and dispose of you,” He pulled out a small device from another hidden pocket and held it out to Cobalt, “Use this to accelerate the training process. Whenever it disobeys, or behaves less than subpar, press this button.”

Both psychics went silent. Cobalt could sense Blue attempt to hide the feral rage building up inside him, while the trainer himself was suppressing the urge to kick the man’s balls right then and there. He reached out towards the device subconsciously, before hesitating.

“And what, pray tell, is that?”

Giovanni silently raised the device into the air and pressed the button. The clone immediately shrieked a loud, verbal shriek before collapsing to the ground with a solid thud; wide eyes and convulsing muscles.

“After the loss of our first few... _ assets _ , we implanted a microchip into our newest clone, to keep track of it, and to keep it in check.” he answered, still holding down the button that was tasing the unfortunate feline. The trainer’s head was filled with the psychic connection equivalent of tv static and nails on a chalkboard, while the clone screamed like a feral animal on the dust covered tile.

“Stop! You can stop! I get it!” Cobalt threw his hands out to grab the remote-like device from the gang leader’s hand; who casually dropped it into the trainer’s grasp. Blue stopped thrashing about and sucked in a huge gulp of air. 

“I expect your pokemon to be utterly and completely obedient within two months. Remember, both of you can be replaced. Just because there’s money invested in that thing doesn’t mean I won’t replace it with our current experiment. You are excused.” Giovanni casually tossed his bloodied hand into the air and left the room. 

Cobalt rushed to the clone’s side and cradled the stunned feline, “I’m so sorry, I’m  _ so _ sorry. Are you okay?” he carefully ran his hand through his fur and scratched behind his ears.

Blue was taking, slow deep breaths, trying to recover from the shock; eyes slightly out of focus. The mewtwo shakily nodded in response. The trainer hugged him; feeling the beginnings of tears pricking his vision.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you ever again.” 


End file.
